09/11/2026
Twenty five years ago the United States of America endured the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. The coordinated hijackings on September 11, 2001, killed 2,977 victims in total. 2,750 people died at the World Trade Center in New York City, 184 people died at the Pentagon in Virginia, and 40 passengers and crew died when the United Flight 94 crashed in Shanksville, PA. In addition to these, the events of September 11th caused the deaths of 441 emergency workers, making the largest single-day loss of first responder lives in U.S. history.
These events are beyond tragic, but they remind us of something very important that events of everyday life cannot: this world is not our home. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that in this world we would have trouble, trouble that is serious enough to end our lives; however, to those of us who follow Him, Jesus tells us this: "Do not lose heart, for I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) And so even among the darkest of hours, we can take heart that not only are we victorious in those moments, but that those darkness is passing away into an everlasting light (1 John 2:8).
And in the meantime, we are not left without instructions: To go and make disciples, to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that Jesus has commanded us. At Crossroads, we summarize this into three words: REACH BUILD and INVERT. We exist to REACH the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ, BUILD them up in the faith, and INVERT people's lives to glorify God As we continue onward, we will re-invite these truths into our lives in order to renew our devotion to Jesus, that our faith would not amount to what the times we live in, but what the Bible we believe in.
